I never understood the title of Pink Martini’s second album, Hang on, Little Tomato, until this year’s seed-starting experiment.

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OK, so the globally-influenced Portland, Ore., band’s got nothing to do with gardening other than its piquant, chuckle-inducing minute-long version of a ketchup-ad soundtrack. But that song title has been stuck in my head all spring as I watched over the tomato, tomatillo and pepper seedlings that I feared I would completely arse up. But here’s the thing about plants, as fellow blogger and commenter Kitt kept encouraging me: THEY WANT TO GROW.

They want to grow when you forget to fertilize them. They want to grow when you let their too-abundant neighbors shoulder out their light. They want to grow when you become insanely busy writing instead of repotting them in a timely fashion.

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They even want to grow when you get frustrated with their tangled stalks and break them. Or when, proudly ferrying them to your office for a co-worker’s son, you turn to the wind at the wrong angle and a howling gale breaks them off right at the soil line, as happened with one of my strongest purple tomatillo plants and a pretty good Kosovo tomato, destined for photographer Cyrus McCrimmon’s son Cormac.

They want to grow even when perfect hardening-off weather suddenly becomes “hide from the hailstorm” weather.

Regardless of the fact that I’m giving away tomato plants like crazy, I couldn’t help but join in on Room editor Elana Jefferson’s plant order to chileplants.com. Only in the interests of helping her meet her minimum order, of course. So I’ve ordered a “Black Pear” tomato and a “Senorita” jalapeno. (In addition to pepper and tomato plants, they sell eggplants). One of the things I learned from Joan Gussow’s “This Organic Life” was that to really grow food, you need to grow some things for storage. Growing storage potatoes sounds like more than I want to take on, but I’ve got a friend with a food dehydrator, so I could grow a tomato variety that’s touted as great for drying.

Would I have gone to all the trouble of starting seeds in March if I’d known I could mail-order ready-to-plant heirloom tomatoes and “Listada de Gandia” eggplants and umpteen bajillion different peppers? Maybe not. But as features editor Dana Coffield told me, “You have to.” I’m not sure if she meant I had to do it as an experiment and writing subject, or that I had to indulge my hell-bentness to grow veggies, or that I had to just get into the dirt (well, soilless growing medium) while it was still snowing out. Likely it’s all three. And as usual, she’s right; I had to do it.

Dirt Date: 10-2 p.m., Saturday June 14, Denver’s Cuernavaca Park. If you’ve been wanting to see electric lawnmowers in action, here’s your chance at Mow Down Pollution Denver. Mayor John Hickenlooper, radio personalities, green lawn-care companies — and me! The deets are here; and if you want to know how MY electric lawnmower performed (yes, I bought the Neuton) pick up a Denver Post tomorrow (Friday) and check the Grow section.

Dirt-y read: Whether you call it edible landscaping or kitchen gardening, the GYO — grow your own — movement is getting huge traction. Read about why here, and if your local source for seeds has seen a huge boom, email me at susanc2@gmail.com.

Becky Hensley is the co-founder of Share Denver - a community craft space in Park Hill. She's also the proud Ninja-in Chief of the Denver Craft Ninjas -- a women’s crafting collective dedicated to keeping the DIY spirit alive through laughter, shared skills, and cocktails.

Colorado native Mark Montano is an international designer, artist, author and television personality. He has appeared on TLC’s “While You Were Out” and “10 Years Younger,” as well as “My Celebrity Home” on the Style Network, “She’s Moving In” on We TV, “The Tony Danza Show” on ABC, and “My Home 2.0” on Fox.